After-Hours Tour of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Tour Highlights:

• After the library has closed to the public, explore the new centennial exhibit, To Uncover and Reveal to the World: Arturo Schomburg’s Library
• See the oldest book in the Schomburg's collection, published in 1550
• View a display of the Qur’an borrowed from the library for Mayor Mamdani's swearing in ceremony
• Examine rare books representing over 100 languages across the world
• Admire artifacts from across the Harlem Renaissance documenting how Schomburg crafted this nationally-recognized collection

About this Event:

Before the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, there was the library of Arturo Schomburg: race man, bookworm, and scholar of the African diaspora. From his youth in Puerto Rico to his leading role in the Harlem Renaissance, Schomburg sought to “uncover and reveal to the world” knowledge about Black culture. Exactly 100 years ago, The New York Public Library purchased Schomburg’s 4,600 books, pamphlets, art, and manuscripts and placed them at the 135th Street Branch Library. His collection planted a seed that grew into the 11 million items now held by the Center. Over time, however, Schomburg’s library became shrouded in mystery because there was no surviving inventory of its contents. Until now. As part of the Schomburg Center’s Centennial celebration, To Uncover and Reveal to the World: Arturo Schomburg’s Library gives a closer look at the extraordinary life of Arturo Schomburg and his collection.

This tour will expand on the new exhibition with a look at the “behind the scenes” work that brought it to life. Visitors will hear more from the team that did the detective work needed to make new discoveries about Arturo Schomburg and the collection that seeded the Center.

About Your Guides:

Laura Helton is an Associate Professor of English and History at the University of Delaware where she teaches American literature and history of the twentieth century with an emphasis on African Americ​an print culture and public humanities. She is the author of the award-winning Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History (Columbia University Press, 2024) and co-editor of Black Studies on 135th Street: The Founding and Future of the Schomburg Collection (Yale University Press, 2026).

Barrye Brown is the Curator of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She received her B.A. in History from Dillard University, M.A. in History with a focus on Atlantic World/African Diaspora from Rice University, and her MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is co-editor of Black Studies on 135th Street: The Founding and Future of the Schomburg Collection (Yale University Press, 2026) and See You at the Meeting: An Oral History of SAA's Archivists and Archives of Color (Society of American Archivists Publications, forthcoming).